It's nothing I have come across before Xose. Love that everybody had a hard year clip. So it seems both Lennon and McCartney got a lot of mileage out of the Donovan finger picking techniques which he learnt himself from Burt Yansch?

It's nothing I have come across before Xose. Love that everybody had a hard year clip. So it seems both Lennon and McCartney got a lot of mileage out of the Donovan finger picking techniques which he learnt himself from Burt Yansch?

Well. As far as I know, it was Lennon & McCartney the ones who learned that technique from Donovan while in India in 1968. If I'm not wrong, it wasn't so influential on Harrison playing...

The interesting point for me, is that from August 1968 onwards Lennon used the "Donovan fingerpicking" very often, and not surprinsingly with the Ramírez borrowed from Harrison...

It's nothing I have come across before Xose. Love that everybody had a hard year clip. So it seems both Lennon and McCartney got a lot of mileage out of the Donovan finger picking techniques which he learnt himself from Burt Yansch?

I think Paul took what he learned from Donovan and moved it forward a bit, so his fingerpicking songs like Blackbird, Mother Natures Son or Junk tend to be slightly different from each other. He is clever enough musically to learn and adapt and progress as he goes along.

John, however, seems to have taken the Donovan thing and just copied it each time he used it. Both those clips above (Everybody Had a Hard Year and Song For John) sound like the song Julia, which is fairly similar in terms of the finger-picking pattern to the first section of Happiness is a Warm Gun. So John was less flexible and adventurous with his playing.

The fact that Paul is a better musician than John is not new information, but I thought it was cool how the Donovan finger-picking thing highlights it quite clearly. And I still love John's finger-picking songs, even if he wasn't adventurous - some of my favourite Beatles songs were done by John and Paul on the White Album.

Good points. I see John as a dabbler, building up phrases and patterns that might come in useful later, whereas Paul would imitate, perfect and correct himself more in a subtle manner in his song-writing approach.

But I think Bert was the master of them all in the world of finger picking.

http://www.musicstack.com/records-cds/bert+janschAn amazing guitarist, Bert Jansch was a key player in the nascent years of the British folk scene. A friend of and heavy influence on Donovan (see "Bert's Blues" or "House of Jansch"), as well as Neil Young and Jimmy Page, his recording career began with one microphone, a bedroom, and an acoustic guitar. His stark, finger-picking instrumentals found him an audience with fellow guitarist John Renbourn, an association which eventually led to their legendary work with Pentangle. His ability to mix classical and jazz guitar with American acoustic blues has made his early records a staple of virtually every up-and-coming guitarist.

I agree with both of you, regarding the different appraches of Lennon & McCartney to "Donovan's" fingerpicking.

But the question remains: Lennon uses that style from -at least- August 1968 to -at least- Summer 1969. And, by Autumn 1968*, he uses that fingerpicking with Harrison/Voormann's Ramírez. This is the most interesting point for me by now...

Best!!

Xosé

* Harrison/Voormann's Ramírez is seen on Lennon hands for the first time in some photos taken at Room No. 1, Second West Ward, Queen Charlotte Hospital, Hammersmith, London, when Yoko's pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage from 4th November until 25th November 1968 (=the miscarriage was on the 21st...)

...Harrison/Voormann's Ramírez is seen on Lennon hands for the first time in some photos taken at Room No. 1, Second West Ward, Queen Charlotte Hospital, Hammersmith, London, when Yoko's pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage from 4th November until 25th November 1968 (=the miscarriage was on the 21st...)

These are the photos at the hospital whith the Ramírez:

But..., when was the Ramírez seen for the last time before that?? On Ringo's hands, at Abbey Road Studio 2, on 16 February 1965: